We have gathered in the Elders’ Palace in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut on an overcast day in March to share the results of an Arctic shipping workshop. Outside, it’s a brisk minus 20 degrees Celsius but this meeting place is a cozy, comfortable space, with a circle of leather couches and a view of the snow and ice-covered bay. Fourteen community members are meeting with us to discuss our team’s research gathered during a visit a year ago.

Cambridge Bay is tucked into an inlet on the south side of Victoria Island, off the Coronation Gulf. It sits in the heart of the southern route of the Northwest Passage where shipping has increased since the 1990s. Not only cargo ships, but passenger ships and yachts all arrive in Cambridge Bay more often than in the past.